Topline
Pfizer announced Monday it had begun a clinical trial to test a flu vaccine based on the same mRNA technology behind its Covid-19 vaccine, the latest step as companies race to build on pandemic successes and build quicker, more effective vaccines.
Pfizer is testing an mRNA flu shot.
Key Facts
Pfizer said it had dosed the first participants in a study designed to test the mRNA-based flu vaccine it developed with German biotech firm BioNTech, the same company it worked with for its Covid-19 vaccine.
The U.S.-based study—an early-stage Phase 1 clinical trial—will evaluate the safety and immune responses compared to another flu vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Pfizer will recruit some 650 healthy adults ages 65-85 to test the jab, it said in a statement and on a government website outlining information on the trial.
Kathrin Jansen, who leads vaccine research and development at Pfizer, said there was a clear need for more effective flu shots and that “mRNA is the ideal technology to take on this challenge.”
Big Number
650,000. That’s about how many people worldwide are killed by the flu every year, according to the World Health Organization. It causes around 5 million cases of severe illness. There are a number of different types of influenza virus that cause seasonal breakouts of the disease and vaccine makers work to predict what strains are likely to circulate in a given year. The shots typically offer between 40-60% protection, less if the vaccines are not well-matched to circulating strains.
Key Background
The need to update flu vaccines to match circulating strains on an annual basis, as well as an onerous and time consuming production process (the virus is usually grown in chicken eggs or mammalian cells), make the shots ideal candidates for replacement with mRNA technology. While most vaccines trigger an immune response by introducing part of a disease causing organism, mRNA vaccines introduce genetic material that allows the body to make a safe part of the organism that the body is trained to respond to. This enables easy editing and more flexible production, ideal for a set of viruses like influenza that frequently change.
What To Watch For
While companies have been trying to develop mRNA vaccines for years—Pfizer has been working with BioNTech on this flu shot since 2018—the successes of Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech during the pandemic have reinvigorated efforts to develop the technology. Major players like GSK, Pfizer and Sanofi are investing heavily in the platform and efforts are already underway to apply the technology to HIV, cancer, genital herpes and genetic conditions. Sanofi and Moderna are also testing flu shots built using mRNA. Moderna is also developing a one-shot Covid-And-Flu vaccine.
Tangent
Despite promising results from early-to-mid-stage clinical trials, a spokesperson for French pharma firm Sanofi confirmed to Forbes the company would not be moving forward with its mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, as first reported by Bloomberg. “Our ambition is to make a significant and relevant contribution to the ongoing pandemic,” the spokesperson said in an email. “From a public health perspective, mRNA Covid vaccines are widely available today, so it does not make sense for us to further advance our mRNA Covid vaccine.” Instead, the spokesperson told Forbes Sanofi will focus on a separate Covid-19 vaccine it is developing with GSK (which does not utilize mRNA) and building up its mRNA pipeline. “We are targeting a… flu mRNA vaccine in the clinic in 2022.”
Further Reading
Pfizer Tests Pill That Could Prevent Covid Infection (Forbes)
Moderna CEO Says Vaccine Boosters And Flu/Covid Combo Shots Are Likely For The Future (Forbes)
What’s Next For Moderna Post-Covid-19: CEO Stéphane Bancel Details mRNA Pipeline (Forbes)
How COVID unlocked the power of RNA vaccines (Nature)
Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus
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